Senior Exhibition Proposal

                                                      Domiciles por los Aves
                                                    Forrest Ernest LaChapelle
                              I began taking art workshops and summer camps as a child with the Museum of Outdoor Art. I took Drawing classes throughout high school and continued on at Arapahoe Community College. While attending A.C.C. I also took my very first ceramics course, This class was full of thirty or so women of all ages. This may sound like fun to most men but it was the opposite, it was nearly impossible for me to concentrate with the constant flood of gibber gabber. Every other word was I, me or my, needless to say I spent no out of class time in the ceramics lab and ended the class as an utterly atrocious potter. This all Changed upon coming to Mesa State, the art department provided an outstanding environment in which my artistic skills have been created, honed and refined. I started out with painting and foundry and almost instantly progressed into ceramics. This is where I have spent the last four years of my studio time, between the ceramics lab and the foundry. In The foundry I have spent enough time to feel absolutely comfortable with all aspects pertaining to bronze casting and metal work. During my time at Mesa States ceramic lab my ability to manipulate clay, fire and glaze has grown leaps and bounds. Upon arriving at Mesa state I could hardly center clay on the wheel and could only pull a wall a little over three inches. I can confidently say that I am currently quite comfortable and competent in all aspects of clay. I started throwing very simple functional forms and tended to lean exclusively towards mugs, bowls and plates. These magic three seem to be in the highest demand among my friends and family. I have become extremely comfortable with my throwing skills and in the last couple of years have began altering these forms to give each piece a life and personality of its own. Every single one of my mugs and bowls are clearly one of a kind and I have become truly prolific, able to produce mass quantities in a short amount of time. Some how I ended up never taking a hand building class, when I witnessed the projects these students were subject to I became rather excited. The use of slabs and rolls of clay allowed students to create massive works in a short amount of time. I was hooked, starting out with a simple thickly thrown bowl I added coil upon coil to create three and four foot vessels. Then I jumped into slab work, starting with utilitarian pieces I created jars, dishes and wall hanging small item storage units. From there I moved to using the slab to create non-functional sculptures. For some reason my slab sculpture began as large phallic monoliths, to my amazement I did not even realize this until four or so were complete. I eventually incorporated my fascination with architecture into my slab work with extreme angles and sharp edges the possibilities seemed endless. Interesting as these buildings were they had little functional use aside from action figure fortresses and abodes. This realization led to the next logical step, Birdhouses. I have long been a bird lover; I am graced with the companionship of two finches, four parakeets and three conures. This knowledge allows me to make birdhouses, which are entirely functional and aesthetically pleasing. For my show I decided to create a habitat both sculptural and functional for viewers and birds alike. I intend to create an installation of avian domiciles that contain a cognitive relationship with each other to create a pre furnished colony for birds to reside. I intend to accomplish this using ceramics for the abodes, hemp and wood for chew toy ladder systems and steel for bases. I hope the result is both pleasing to the viewer and dweller alike. This is an exciting project for me to undertake, it is almost as if two worlds I love were colliding. I hope my love for the fine arts and my equal love for our feathered friends will work together to produce a beyond satisfactory product. This project and the time restraints involved will test my ability to produce at an accelerated rate. This is very exciting opportunity to be able to take my accumulated knowledge across many mediums and combine them together for one final hurrah.